Revival Of Mountex Presents Big Opportunity In Cotton Farming
Updated on: Jul 23, 2019
The revival of Mount Kenya Textiles mill by the government will provided a lifeline to cotton farming in the country.
Cotton industry went down after the collapse of many of the government textile mills in early 1990s partly due to the influx of cheap imports.
Rift Valley Textiles (Rivatex) is already running after the president recommissioned it a month ago when he also directed Trade and Industrialization cabinet secretary Peter Munya to workout revival of Laikipias Mountex. Others targeted include Mountex (Nanyuki), Kicomi (Kisumu) while a new one would be put up in Makueni/Taita Taveta area to serve the Coast region.
All of these old firms were heavily indebted and were sold out at throw-away prices to private firms or individuals. Perhaps the story of the fall of Mountex is the most emotional and dramatic of all.
After remaining intact but grounded for years, Mountex was vandalized in the most ruthless manner in 2012. All the machines were carted away in broad daylight. So vicious were the vandals that they not only razed entire buildings, excavated and took away foundation of the building! Live trees surrounding the factory were neither spared. Hopes over revival of this mills were dashed.
Hordes of vandals were successful in flattening the area where Mountex existed for years in less than a month. Life for the ordinary citizen living in Nanyuki was never to be the same. In its heydays, Mountex employed more than 3,000 people directly and scores of others indirectly. Your guess is as good as mine as to what happened to these people after its fall and eventual vandalism.
Cotton farmers and ginnery owners in Meru and Makueni were also benefited from the textile mill as they are the ones who fed it with raw materials.
After period of the hopelessness that lingered with the death of Mountex, there is rightful hope in the tunnel following CS Munyas visit on Monday!
The ministers purpose was ostensibly to explore an appropriate location for the new Mountex. Latest, in the next two months, work on the industry will begin.
But for the firm to employ 3,000 people again, we will need to think about where we will source the raw material, cotton. As a county Laikipia residents should begin planning where it will get cotton from.
Apart from the direct employment, cotton farming presents the biggest employment/investment opportunity to any Laikipians. The single biggest advantage over the Mt Kenya region counties is the availability of land either for leasing or for buying.
Already, the government is fast tracking the introduction of Biotechnology Cotton, a more productive and drought resistant variety of cotton suitable for drier climates of the region.
Farmers in Laikipia will reap big from the project, as the region has favorable conditions to develop into a major cotton belt.
Cotton is a biannual crop, meaning farming can plant it twice a year as it takes approximately six months from planting to harvesting.
Laikipia has a lot of advantage since it has a lot of land that farmers can lease for planting cotton. Cotton farming is expected to open up the drier regions of Laikipia to productivity, as the new variety of is more adapted to the drier climates.
The factory is set to serve the greater Mount Kenya region with cotton farmers from Laikipia, Nyeri, Embu and Isiolo Counties set to be the immediate beneficiaries.
Instead of casting doubt over the revival of Mountex, lets workout ways of producing enough raw material for it to start in a biiiig way!
Cotton industry went down after the collapse of many of the government textile mills in early 1990s partly due to the influx of cheap imports.
Rift Valley Textiles (Rivatex) is already running after the president recommissioned it a month ago when he also directed Trade and Industrialization cabinet secretary Peter Munya to workout revival of Laikipias Mountex. Others targeted include Mountex (Nanyuki), Kicomi (Kisumu) while a new one would be put up in Makueni/Taita Taveta area to serve the Coast region.
All of these old firms were heavily indebted and were sold out at throw-away prices to private firms or individuals. Perhaps the story of the fall of Mountex is the most emotional and dramatic of all.
After remaining intact but grounded for years, Mountex was vandalized in the most ruthless manner in 2012. All the machines were carted away in broad daylight. So vicious were the vandals that they not only razed entire buildings, excavated and took away foundation of the building! Live trees surrounding the factory were neither spared. Hopes over revival of this mills were dashed.
Hordes of vandals were successful in flattening the area where Mountex existed for years in less than a month. Life for the ordinary citizen living in Nanyuki was never to be the same. In its heydays, Mountex employed more than 3,000 people directly and scores of others indirectly. Your guess is as good as mine as to what happened to these people after its fall and eventual vandalism.
Cotton farmers and ginnery owners in Meru and Makueni were also benefited from the textile mill as they are the ones who fed it with raw materials.
After period of the hopelessness that lingered with the death of Mountex, there is rightful hope in the tunnel following CS Munyas visit on Monday!
The ministers purpose was ostensibly to explore an appropriate location for the new Mountex. Latest, in the next two months, work on the industry will begin.
But for the firm to employ 3,000 people again, we will need to think about where we will source the raw material, cotton. As a county Laikipia residents should begin planning where it will get cotton from.
Apart from the direct employment, cotton farming presents the biggest employment/investment opportunity to any Laikipians. The single biggest advantage over the Mt Kenya region counties is the availability of land either for leasing or for buying.
Already, the government is fast tracking the introduction of Biotechnology Cotton, a more productive and drought resistant variety of cotton suitable for drier climates of the region.
Farmers in Laikipia will reap big from the project, as the region has favorable conditions to develop into a major cotton belt.
Cotton is a biannual crop, meaning farming can plant it twice a year as it takes approximately six months from planting to harvesting.
Laikipia has a lot of advantage since it has a lot of land that farmers can lease for planting cotton. Cotton farming is expected to open up the drier regions of Laikipia to productivity, as the new variety of is more adapted to the drier climates.
The factory is set to serve the greater Mount Kenya region with cotton farmers from Laikipia, Nyeri, Embu and Isiolo Counties set to be the immediate beneficiaries.
Instead of casting doubt over the revival of Mountex, lets workout ways of producing enough raw material for it to start in a biiiig way!
